Waxes have traditionally been used in gum bases to present certain desirable characteristics in the resulting chewing gum product. Wax present in chewing gum bases and in chewing gums provides a number of functions in the gum base, for example, release of flavor, curing of the finished product, enhanced shelf life of the finished gum, and gum texture and softness.
Although the art contains teachings to wax-free gums, these gums typically provided different chew characteristics than those of gums created from wax-containing gum bases. Heretofore gum bases without wax, particularly petroleum waxes, were occasionally created to achieve specific ends, for example a non-tack gum. In these instances, compromises with respect to certain chewing gum characteristics, such as softness and chewability, may have been made to achieve other results such as non-tack or improved stability of certain ingredients. However, the art contains no teaching of how to achieve the desirable characteristics associated with wax, without using wax.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,574 issued to Comollo, discloses an abhesive chewing gum base in which the non-tack properties avoiding adhesion to dental work were achieved by eliminating conventional chewing gum base ingredients having tackiness and by substituting non-tacky ingredients therefore. Materials contributing to gum tackiness included certain elastomers, certain resins, and waxes. Comollo eliminated certain naturally occurring elastomers and substituted in their place one or more non-tacky synthetic elastomers such as polyisobutylene, polyisoprene, isoprene-isobutylene copolymer and styrene-butadiene copolymers. Comollo also eliminated tack-producing natural resins and modified natural resins and used instead relatively high amounts of hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils or animal fats. Finally, Comollo completely excluded waxes from his gum base, but in the place of wax included polyvinylacetate, certain fatty acids, and mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids.
The Comollo product did present a non-tack chewing gum of commercial success. The product did not contain oligosaccharide binding ingredients, other than syrups and normal binding ingredients known to the art.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,530, Yatka et al., a storage stable chewing gum incorporating alitame as a sweetener was disclosed. In one embodiment of this patent, formulations were presented substantially free of wax. Yatka's chewing gum also did not contain the special noncariogenic oligosaccharides of this invention as binding agents.
Also, a PCT Patent Application No. PCT/US92/01686, filed Mar. 3, 1992 in the U.S. receiving office, and entitled "Improved Wax-Free Chewing Gum Base", naming Steven Synosky as the inventor, and a later PCT Patent Application No. PCT/US92/09615, Synosky et al., discloses certain wax-free gum bases which attempted to relieve the negative perception created in the United Kingdom concerning the use of petroleum waxes in chewing gums. Additionally, a continuation in part of this PCT Patent Application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/906,921, was later filed, which application taught improved wax-free gum bases and chewing gums made thereof; which teachings included the substitution of increased amounts of certain fats and oils to provide chewing gum characteristics lost by removing waxes. None of these applications, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, contained the oligosaccharides of this invention as a binding agent.
Since the removal of wax, particularly petroleum waxes, has caused the loss of desirable chewing gum characteristics such as softness and chewability, the art has sought a replacement to recover these characteristics. In addition, use of common binding agents such as corn syrup or the use of increased gum base levels were needed to improve the structure of the final product. In some cases this provided binding, but lost storage stability, and involved increased cost.
There was an obvious need for a method of removing wax from gum bases without compromising the characteristics of the resulting gum. Likewise there was a need for chewing gums which were wax-free, particularly petroleum wax-free and exhibited the characteristics of gums that included wax. Similarly, there was a need for processes and ingredient combinations that could provide wax-free gums and provide processing characteristics for these wax-free gums, which gums had the desirable characteristics of wax-containing gums.